Aerospace hub announced

The multidisciplinary project will bring in people from industries, academia, and government.

The Downsview Aerospace Innovation
and Research (DAIR) Consortium, an association of the largest aerospace
companies and leading post-secondary education institutions from the Greater
Toronto Area (GTA), have come together with the joint mandate of developing an
Aerospace Hub at Downsview Park in Toronto, Ontario. The engineers at
University of Toronto have also partnered with aircraft manufacturers and
academic institutions in the hope to bolster Canada’s aerospace industry.

The multidisciplinary project, aimed at improving current
initiatives and developing new research, will bring together people from
industries, academia and government. They will collaborate on a variety of
cutting-edge projects, such as optimizing the shapes of future airplanes and
spaceships, and designing satellites. The centre would also provide aerospace
training for students.

This project, apart from improving Canada’s aerospace
industry, will also provide an opportunity for graduate students to work
directly in this sector. DAIR has decided to introduce new courses, such as,
accident investigation class, which will examine a plane crash wreckage to
identify and develop better engineering methods for safety.

Although it will take approximately four years for this
project to be completed, Centennial College opened its $72-million Downsview
Campus facility for aerospace training last month. The main phase will be at
Downsview in North York while other departments relocate to it.

In an interview with CBC, executive director of DAIR
Andrew Petrou said, “This is the beginning of a renaissance of aerospace
activity at the Downsview site.”

Petrou hopes that the consortium will provide a space for
the next generation of Canadians to learn, collaborate on, and to share new
ideas.